A Street Evangelist Speaks Out on Persecution, Black Lives Matter, Kingdom Now, and Playing With the Devil

By Gregory Reid

This is a time when everything is being shaken. One of the difficult parts of this time is that it is almost impossible to talk about anything that is happening without it being politicized; and you risk being misunderstood if you take a stand on an issue. But it is clear to me that we are witnessing one of the greatest wars in the heavenlies (in my lifetime). And why should we be surprised? If we know we are in the final hours, it makes sense that Satan would unleash every power in Hell against believers. It is so much bigger than politics. The answer is Jesus. The answer is transformed lives in Jesus. But we have entered a unique time where the hostility to Jesus and believers is so visceral in the media and in the streets that it is shocking.

Increased Hostility and Hate Toward Christians

I’ve been in street evangelism for most of my life. And you expect some negative reactions. I was with brother Wilkerson in San Francisco, and we hit every subculture in the city in a week. Some welcomed us. Some were mocking. Some were indifferent. And only in one place did I experience raw hate, and that was in the gay district. I got punched hard in the mouth. By God’s grace, I did not react but was able to give a Holy Spirit, loving response. Mostly, people considered street evangelists like the cartoon guy with the sandwich board that says, “The End Is Near,” and they are ignored. That has changed. Now believers are being targeted like never in our history as a nation.

In this extremely incendiary time, we cannot forget that our first call is to bring people to Christ. When people start to attack us, how will we respond? The devil will taunt through people, blaspheme, mock, and even assault. We must learn to speak truth in love. Truth will pierce the hearts of those who are unsaved. Some it will pierce to repentance, some to rage. But we must still speak it plainly and boldly. We forget that Paul was most often not welcomed but was severely persecuted wherever he went. Since we have become a post-Christian pagan society, the rage is going to be palpable and sometimes violent in days to come. They are already burning Bibles. They are already gunning for believers to punish them for centuries-old crimes they had nothing to do with.

Part of the strategy of the enemy is to provoke us to human anger. Is there righteous anger? Absolutely. But remember that “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). We must respond according to the Spirit of God. There will be times we may call out someone and pronounce a judgment of sorts. (Read Acts 13:8-12 where a sorcerer is judged.) And there will be other times when we entreat as Paul did to Felix and the Roman soldiers on the ship he was on. But it’s never been more important to respond with godly words and not human pride and anger. As one person said, we have to keep our heart rate below the ones to whom we are speaking. Unfortunately, my perception is that there are few believers with the boldness to speak truth to the lost in love. I am afraid we have raised a whole generation of “leaders” who are still stuck in seeker-friendly mode and think that’s working. It didn’t work then, and it won’t now. We are at a precipice and if you want to reach unbelievers, you have to be walking, speaking, and witnessing in the power of God and the love of God. And you must be willing to say what He says, even if it goes against your training of thinking more games and fun and social activities will reach the world for Jesus.

Make no mistake; believers are being corralled. And frankly, I have gone beyond the point of pretending that some of these attending issues don’t matter. Abortion matters. The LBGTQ issue, and where we stand on it, matters. (And yes, of course, poverty and injustice matter as well, and we need to be tending practically to those things as the church.) California has just passed a bill making it easier on pedophiles in the court system, which the organized pedophile groups like NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association and MAPS (Minor Attracted Persons) are rejoicing over. (By the way, I recently got “fact-checked” by Facebook for “false information” for a post about that. The “independent” fact-checker was USA Today, a newspaper that has been radically biased for thirty-something years. “Independent fact-checkers?” Not a real thing in Facebook Land.

Speaking of pedophiles, Netflix recently released a series called “Cuties” which is as close as you get to child pornography as you will see outside the criminal world, exposing nearly naked little girls in sexual dances for talent shows. Where are the court systems? Where are the PARENTS? I am afraid that so many parents just let kids watch whatever they want. Netflix even has a series that includes a hard-core sex scene in the opening first 5 minutes, and if parents don’t have control of what their kids watch, this is what they will see under a series that has a completely innocent name! Netflix is satanic and hypocritical. (They just released a series on the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, then they put out this trash.) It’s time to lose your subscription to Netflix, folks.

Black Lives Matter

The next thing I need to mention will likely lose me some friends and perhaps support, but the truth must prevail. I will start by first stating the obvious—black lives matter. Any Christian who doesn’t get that is probably not even saved or needs to repent. But we shouldn’t HAVE to say it; it’s in our Jesus code and should be in our actions toward ALL. Those who know me know my heart. I don’t operate in racist circles, and I never have or will.

But the recent racial divide is seeking to force believers in a corner. And I am sad that so many believers have simply signed on to the BLM movement without a clue who they are or what they want or stand for. It isn’t a social-justice movement. That is a cover. It’s a tool being used to upend the nation from top to bottom. I will not bow the knee to anyone but Jesus Christ, and neither should you. I will and have joined hearts, arms, and ministries with my black brothers and sisters across the nation since the first time I preached at a black church in Arkansas in 1976. In Christ, there is no black or white. Are there racial issues? Do people do terrible things? Yes. But in Christ, He has made one blood those who are His. One family.

The racial issue is seeking to divide even the body of Christ. I have stepped back and stayed quiet on this issue because of the political traps attached to it, but I have seen many Christians, and even young believers I at one time helped to raise up, fall for the guilt-trap of supporting Black Lives Matter because they want to be seen as accepting and relevant.  Again, as believers, these matters of justice are clear and things we should be doing.  But the BLM Movement and its founders are rooted in ungodliness and occultism. Most believers don’t have a clue.

For my millennial friends, the best way to show that “black lives matter” is to actually reach out to those who are black, invite them to church, go to theirs, get to know them, help and encourage when there is a need. Just going to a rally is not just a (possibly) well-intended but useless gesture (virtue signaling), but it associates you with an organization that is founded and rooted in Marxism and LGBTQ radical causes.

When you see BLM going into a site where someone died and pouring out water and saying, “Say his name!” or “Say her name!” people think they just want to have people remember the name of people killed by police. Not so. It is a ritual of the Yoruba religion. (Yoruba is very close to what we know as “Santeria.”) It is called Ase. (Pronounced A-she). If you have heard them saying that word after saying, “Say his name,” it is literally calling on the dead victim to help them in their cause. Saying “Ase” is a ritual that is spoken to “conceive the power, make things happen and produce change.” (Or, “Power, authority, command.” )

When you understand the roots of BLM, no Christian should have anything to do with it. It is not uncommon now to see BLM, Church of Satanic Liberation, radical LGBTQ and Antifa all wrapped up together. And while I appreciate some people’s attempt to support legitimate causes to better people’s lives, it is crucial that you understand that, at its root, this is about destroying our nation, and as they say on their website, “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement.” (Note: Since this CLEAR goal on the BLM website has gotten so much attention, they have since removed it. But make no mistake – it is foundational to them!)

I have taken a huge risk laying all this out, but I am required by God to tell the truth and do so no matter what the risk. I never indulge in politics, and this is not that. This is to forewarn you about the spiritual poison underlying what we see on the streets. As believers, we must pray for the people, but you cannot align yourself with anyone who proclaims a different god. I hope this is clear.

The Kingdom Now?—A Dangerous Teaching

The church, in this hour, is getting further and further away from its understanding of the prophetic times in which we live. In fact, I am seeing that this pandemic and the racial unrest and violence is pushing the “Kingdom Now” movement to the forefront. Kingdom Now is the idea that Jesus is not going to return for His people before or in a time of tribulation (according to your time view) but rather, we are going to invade and infiltrate and eventually take over all the centers of society—then Jesus will return when it’s all under our control, and we will just hand it over to him.

This is a dangerous teaching, and so many are caught up in it. But Jesus was clear that the time of the end would be a time of such tribulation that the world had never seen and never would see again (Matthew 24:21-22). He said unless He shortened the days, there would no flesh be saved.

Does that sound like “church in charge over the world”? No! And we are not called to that! We are called to preach the Gospel in a time of darkness and save whoever will come. God is calling the church to radical evangelism in this hour.

Playing With the Devil

I am concerned, as we are distracted by the awful things around us, that we are still letting our guard down and letting deception grow in our midst. Zondervan (remember when they were a Christian company?) is about to release a movie extolling the healing virtues of the Enneagram, a highly occultic and occult-based “tool” being used in churches everywhere, whose leadership and members wrongly think it is just a helpful tool to figure out who we are and how to navigate relationships.

Even more disconcerting is to watch several leaders from one of the signs and wonders churches [Bethel] gathering to do a “declaration” to stop racism, which involved imitating Galdalf the Wizard in Lord of the Rings when he faced down a terrible demon called a Balrog, took his two staffs, pounded it into the ground, and said, “You shall not pass!” These leaders recreated this scene in a bizarre ritual meant to stop racism. How have we fallen into such a state of disconnection from spiritual reality that we think this is acceptable?

Then after that, I saw a huge “prayer conference” with well-known Christian leaders in which worship was a Native American rain dance by someone in full Native regalia. They explained that the Native Americans used the rain dance to expel dark forces, and we would use it to expel demons! How desperately we need to return to the truth and house-clean all this deception!

Not Caught Off Guard

We need to look at all we are seeing right now through scriptural eyesight, and realize all of what we are seeing is written in the Word. As Peter said, “this is that which was spoken . . . ” (Acts 2:16). If we know the Word, nothing will catch us off guard. Gird up your armor. Pray fervently. Work while it is yet day. In patience, possess you your souls. And remember that the choices we make in the days ahead may well determine how much time remains for us to do the work of the Lord with the freedom to do so that we have had. God help us to make godly decisions in every area in the coming days.

I am reminded, in these difficult times, of Jeremiah, who in his whole ministry really only had two people respond: his scribe Brauch and a eunuch who rescued him. His times were much bleaker than ours, yet in the midst of it, God told him to buy a piece of land from a relative. Hope. Investing in the future. We don’t know how much time we have left, but we must not despair, and we must invest in the Kingdom, our kids, and whatever future lies ahead.

Every day, I try to write something, play music, thank God for everything I have been blessed with, watch a spectacular sunset, and remember that God is still in control. Hope fills my heart. Stay in hope, beloved!

Thank all of you who continue to support this work in the wilderness. I am deeply grateful for every gift and every prayer!

My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in ev’ry high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil. [Refrain]

His oath, his covenant, his blood
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay. [Refrain]

When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found,
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne

In His grace,

Gregory Reid

Box 370006 El Paso TX 79937
www.gregoryreid.com legendaryseeker@gmail.com